The riddle

Soon, it was already the day for the test. As we all had decided before, we all went to training ground 16 as sensei handed us our papers. The test was simple written test. There were no tricks involved in this test, we just had to write down the answer to the questions and that's it.

After the time was up, we all handed our papers back to sensei and left the place, not me though. I just acted like I was leaving the place but in reality,I was heading towards sensei's house. After arriving there, I waited for a while and sensei also appeared. After that, sensei invited me into his house.

My goal in coming to sensei's place was to know who scored the highest in this test. After finding that out, I would be able to decide whom I should support in the next competition.

"So? What's the result, sensei?" I asked a bit impatiently.

"Mio has the highest score. While Seiten is also not that behind her, the fact stands that Mio won the first competition."

"Mio won? I thought Seiten would win since he had been the smarter one back at the academy but it looks like Mio had a surprise planned."

"So? Now you have to somehow have Seiten win the next competition. What's the plan?" Sensei asked with a smile.

"Hm...First, tell what's the theme of the next competition!"

...

On the academy groundー

All three of us were standing side by side in the middle of the playground while sensei was standing in front of us. And just behind him a small cardboard box was placed.

"I'll be explaining the rules of the second competition now, so listen closely!" Sensei said and then started taking something out of the box behind him. It was a red flag.

"There are three red flags, like this one, hidden all across Konoha. Your goal is to find a flag that has your name's first letter on it. For example, there would be a red flag with the letter 'K' on it which means that Karan has to find that flag. And after finding it, you have to bring that flag to me, here in the academy. Whoever brings the flag first wins the competition."

"As for how you are going to be able to find your flags, Kids!" Sensei shouted towards one of the classrooms and from there, appeared nine students as they hurried towards us.

"You all know what I had told you right?" Sensei asked as the kids nodded and walked towards us. Thee kids came my side and stood a little behind me while the other six went towards Seiten and Mio.

"The three kids behind you all know three clues and combining these clues will lead you to know how to reach one of the flags. but. they don't know which flag they have the clue of, so, technically the kids behind Karan could lead to the flag Seiten needs or the kids behind Mio could lead to the flag Karan needs. Also, the kids will be staying right here without going anywhere and all of you can ask any of the kids here for the clues and they will tell you the clue they know."

"Alright. Now, before we start, I want to let you know that if you find a flag that is not yours, you can still take that flag with you to make sure that others don't find that flag but, after you take that flag, you can't hide it, you have to carry that flag around with you. Do you all understand all that?"

"Yes, sensei!"

"Alright. So from now, you all can start the search for your flags!" Just as sensei said that all three of us turned around and asked the students behind us-

"""What is the clue?"""

Just as they heard me, The three kids that were standing behind me started speaking one by one-

"My little sister loves slides!"

"I don't like playgrounds!"

"Hokage is the greatest!"

"What...?" I asked again.

"Hm?...do you want us to repeat?" one of the kids asked.

"Uh...No, it's fine." I said and moved away from them as I thought about what they told me. I had to find a location from these sentences sence the flag is going to be on that location. But I just couldn't find what was the location was saying. The only things I feel like mean something in these sentences are, Slides, not a playground and...Hokage? What should I even make out of these words?

All of this would have been so much easier if sensei had fully decided to help me. Yesterday when I had asked him about the theme of today's competition, he did say that it would be something to do with flag and the three kids that would come towards me would know where Mio's flag is, but nothing else. He said that as a sensei, he can't help me too much since it wouldn't be fair but seriously, at least give me a nicer hint!

Though, I really am not that panicked since Gaya can always find where all three of the flags are but I at least want to narrow it down to save even a few points.

While I was trying to find that location, I saw Seiten running towards somewhere. Now it isn't strange to see him running since it could have just meant that he figured something out but after figuring it out, Why would he run inside the academy instead of running out of it?

I thought for a second why, but then shook my head. Maybe his clue leeds him to the inside of the academy? I should probably think about my own riddle.

And I was about to do that when suddenly, I saw Mio also running inside the academy. I looked at her speedy figure and couldn't help but be confused. I looked back at the kids, they were all just standing there as some of them talked to each other. I looked at them and had a thought.

'All the riddles have one thing in common. There answer is always out of the box. So, let's think for a second, about all of sensei's actions. This riddle, Sensei must be the one to tell these kids about what to say right? But, why did he chose kids? He could have just written it somewhere and we could have just read it. The purpose was to just let us know about the riddle, right? Then why was it necessary to have kids stand here and tell us the riddles? It would only be necessary if the riddles were linked to these kids and if that is the case, we have to know a bit more about these kids in order to solve that riddle!" Just a second after realising that I appeared in front of one of the kids, I had asked the riddle from.

"What is your name kid and where do you live?" I asked, my tone was not friendly but it wasn't especially terrifying.

"Um...My name is Takashi. and um...I can't tell you anything else. Sensei told us not to." Hearing that, I knew I was on the right track. I have to find a way to know more about these kids. Where can I find more information about these kids.

Just as I thought of that, The memory of Seiten and Mio running inside the academy flashed in my head. I now knew what I had to do.

"You two! Tell me your name as well your class!" I asked and as soon as they told me, I sprinted inside the academy as well. I have a general map of the academy in my head because the previous owner of this body also went to the academy. So I headed straight towards the room, they put the records of students in.

After entering, I was immediately greeted with the figures of Seiten and Mio, flipping pages of certain records.

"You finally arrived! I really thought you would take forever to come here." Seiten said as he looked up towards me with a smile.

"Yeah it took me longer to figure out what was up there." I said as I walked inside.

I searched the class record those kids were in as I started flipping pages as well. These records also held what a student does in his everyday life. The records weren't perfect since they were not updated frequently and These records also didn't go into their private life and only told the things they(The students) were okay with telling others but even after all that, I knew that this is the key to the riddle, so I kept flipping the pages with focused eyes.

Even though I knew their names, finding their record through it still took me around five minutes. but after that, I had a general idea of where to go. So, I closed the record and left the place.

------------

Tbh, I wanted to finish the second competition in this chapter as well but, I was too lazy to〜

Pls, give me stones!